head to head · open source
gokey vs QtPass
gokey has 2,437 GitHub stars, 109 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. QtPass has 1,150 stars, 172 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped today. gokey leads on adoption by 112% (2,437 vs 1,150 stars). gokey is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause; QtPass is written in C++ under GPL-3.0. gokey has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, QtPass 15%. QtPass was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (password-generator, password-manager, password-vault), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| gokey | QtPass | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 2.4K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-07-10 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 109 | ⑂ 172 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick gokey if
- You weight community size — 2.4K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick QtPass if
- You want the QtPass feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and QtPass fits your workflow better
About gokey
gokey is a vaultless password and key generator written in Go that derives passwords and cryptographic private keys on demand from a master password or a seed file instead of storing them in a vault, aimed at developers and system administrators who want deterministic credentials available anywhere without managing, backing up, or syncing a password store.
read the full gokey overview →
About QtPass
QtPass is a multi platform graphical front end for pass , the standard Unix password manager, aimed at people who want to manage encrypted credentials with GPG without living in a terminal.
read the full QtPass overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is gokey or QtPass more popular?
gokey has 2,437 GitHub stars and QtPass has 1,150. gokey has the larger community by that measure.
Are gokey and QtPass free?
Both are open source. gokey is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and QtPass under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between gokey and QtPass?
gokey is written in Go and QtPass in C++. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, gokey or QtPass?
Choose gokey if you want the larger community (2,437 stars) or its BSD-3-Clause licence terms. Choose QtPass if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.